Machine and equipment assets, generally, are engineered to perform particular tasks as part of a business process. Assets are used and maintained for a variety of purposes including energy, transportation, healthcare, manufacturing, and the like. For example, assets may include distributed assets, such as a pipeline, a bridge, an electrical grid, or the like, as well as individual or discrete assets, such as a tower, a locomotive, a wind turbine, a gas flare, drilling/mining equipment, and the like. The design and implementation of these assets often takes into account both the physics of the task at hand, as well as the environment in which such assets are configured to operate.
Despite being well constructed of such materials as steel, concrete, brick, and the like, assets often deteriorate over time due to exposure to environmental conditions and other factors. Assets may experience various types of defects including spontaneous mechanical defects, electrical defects, as well as routine wear-and-tear. These defects can severely impact the operation and performance of the asset. For example, an asset may undergo corrosion or experience cracking due to weather and temperature or the asset may exhibit deteriorating performance or efficiency due to the wear or failure of certain component parts. If the damage to the asset is not repaired in a timely manner, it can lead to more serious problems and even cause the asset to break down completely.
Typically, a human inspector such as an expert or a technician of a particular type of asset may inspect, maintain, repair, and request repairs to an asset. For example, the inspector may locate corrosion on the asset and clean the corrosion therefrom, identify a part of the asset that needs replacement and order and install the replacement part, and the like. However, depending on a location of the asset, a size of the asset, and/or a complexity of the asset, human inspection of the asset can be difficult and dangerous. For example, it is difficult for a person to inspect the blades of an operating wind turbine, the tower of a gas flare, the interior of an oil platform, or the like, without risking potential injury. In addition, assets can be located in harsh environments such as underwater and at sea, in deserted areas, near high temperature systems, inside mines or tanks, and the like. Therefore, improved systems and techniques for monitoring the health of assets are needed.